McKay has spent many years as a writer and director for television. His writing has always dealt with extreme behaviour and includes the controversial
BBC play
Airbase which dealt metaphorically with drug abuse on a
USAF base in England. The play achieved notoriety after it was mentioned in Parliament and the Lords after Prime Minister
Thatcher demanded a copy, the Chairman of the BBC,
Marmaduke Hussey publicly apologised for the content, and
Mary Whitehouse, of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, issued a second apology to President
Reagan on the behalf of the British people. McKay's work also includes the award winning
A Wanted Man trilogy (Royal Television Society, best serial, Golden Chest Awards, best drama) one of the first television dramas to deal in depth with the arrest, trial and psychology of a serial killer.
The Interrogation of John about the police questioning of a murder suspect (first shown in 1987) becomes the first part of the trilogy; the second part,
The Secret, is about his trial; and
Shoreland about his subsequent treatment concludes the trilogy. He has made three films for the BBC as writer and director:
Redemption, about a child killer, ''Maria's Child
, the graphic description of a female dancer’s decision to abort her child and the subsequent doubts and difficulties of the process, and Cruel Train'', an adaptation of
Émile Zola's
La Bete Humaine. He has also directed plays by
Jim Cartwright and
Jimmy McGovern again for the BBC. Most recently he adapted
Mervyn Peake's
Gormenghast trilogy (winner New York Critics Circle award) and wrote an eight part cop show for
BBC One. ==Radio==